Reseda Boulevard Bike Lanes Extended, Wilbur Avenue Lanes Questioned

This past weekend, the city of Los Angeles striped two additional miles of bike lanes on Reseda Boulevard. The new 2-mile stretch of lane, reported in-progress here last week[1], extends from Devonshire Street to Parthenia Street. This stretch is nearly complete with lines fully striped, bike symbols added, but directional arrows missing and hopefully coming soon. It’s great to see relatively rapid progress on this formerly-controversial[2] project.

The Valley Bikery’s Ayla Stern stated that local cyclists canvassed homes along Wilbur yesterday and found nearly-100% unanimous support for the new bike lane roadway configuration. Neighbors reported favoring a safer quieter street, with convenient left turns and less speeding.

The LADOT has not been forthcoming with information on the Wilbur project. Repeated inquiries by Valley-resident and City Bicycle Advisory Committee chair Glenn Bailey received cursory, uninformative responses.

Complicating matters, a week or two ago, the city subsequently repaved an additional stretch of Wilbur (a half-mile north – from Devonshire Street to Chatsworth Street) and put down only markers in the center of the street, with no preliminary striping and no indication of whether bike lanes will be added or not. The decision appears to lie in the hands of Councilmember Greig Smith, who has expressed some skepticism on bike issues[9], but ultimately supported the completion of the portion of the Reseda Boulevard bike lanes in his district.

[5] remaining 1.6 miles from Valerio to Parthenia, listed as a Year 2010 priority project in the city’s draft 5-Year Implementation Plan: http://la.streetsblog.org/2010/08/10/looking-into-los-angeles-draft-bike-plan-implementation-strategy/

[8] encouraging Valley cyclists to write to Councilmember Greig Smith in support of finishing the new lanes: http://lacbc.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/bike-lanes-on-wilbur-ave-in-svf-threatened-send-in-letters-today/